The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Rifles Medium Bore Rifles 7mm Rigby rifleGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
| 7mm Rigby rifle | Login/Join |
One of Us |
 http://i692.photobucket.com/al...nMurray/IMG_0781.jpg Some advice please: I have this rifle in pristine condition that is in all accounts a Rigby, but without the name on the barrel. The local Rigby agent got quite excited when seeing it, saying that not all Rigbys were marked. What it does say is "Rigby 7mm Cartridge" which is quite rare in itself. He pointed out that all the serial numbers match, including the one on the bolt. Any comments will be appreciated, including possible value. The agent actually wants it for the South African Rigby museum. I bought it from a family friend and know little of its history. | ||
|
One of Us |
Now that's Lekker. Contact Rigby in London with the serial number. They can prove or disprove provenance. | |||
|
| One of Us |
Thanks for the tip and I have just done that via their website. | |||
|
| One of Us |
If its' British made it will have proof marks on the barrel and on the action. If it doesn't it isn't British made. So that will sort that out. Regardless if it looks good, shoots good, if it pleases you then it is worth what it is to you. Looks fine to me. How much is the S. African Rigby Agent offering? Holt's, the UK Norfolk based auction house, have an agent is S. Africa. | |||
|
| One of Us |
Looks a lovely rifle. Most Rigby's have the address of Rigby marked on their barrels. But do bear in mind that Rigby's were in effect taking Mauser actions and indeed probably barrelled actions, putting them together, adding sights and stocking them to pretty much the order of their customers. There is not a lot of difference between a Rigby, a commercial Mauser and Westly Richards, Holland & Holland, save for the final quality of finish and the styling of the individual stocks which would vary from customer to customer and stocker to stocker. The 7mm Mauser was originally referred to by Rigby as the 275 Rigby, and they will be marked as such or as 7x57 on the later ones. I think other British makers would refer to it as the 275 as well. There was I believe a 7mm Rigby Magnum cartridge which had a larger case and case head. I would check the chamber on yours. Value - these rifles seem to make £1500 to £3000 to £4000 at auction, buts depends on condition and provenance. | |||
|
| One of Us |
| |||
|
One of Us |
The 7mm Rigby was larger than the 275 Rigby, It is a rimmed cartridge with an over all case length of 2.490 inches, Total H2O capacity of around 65.44 grains. It may have had or not had a bullet with a true .284 diameter. I show that the bullet diameter is .287 but that could be wrong. | |||
|
| One of Us |
Mick is (as usual) correct. The 7mm Rigby Magnum is made these days from .405 Basic, and dates back to around 1927. Bullets are apparently a proprietary .287" diameter. But, there is also the 7x57 Mauser, and a Mexican variant, and the .275 Rimless (Rigby) that dates to 1907, and uses standard .284" diameter bullets. I generally defer to the Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversion as a reference, and it says that this case was made from Otto Bock's 1905 introduced 9,3x62. The dimension shown at the base is .475, which differs from the X57mm series of cartridges and the 30-06 family; being larger by .007" to .005". I have a lovely 100% engraved GEWEHR action that I need to chamber for either the 7x57 or the 275. Now that Hornady makes the 275 head stamped brass, it makes the decision more difficult. | |||
|
| new member |
Stock and sling eyes look to be same as Rigby 275 I have seen . If you look on the side of the peep sight it should have "RIGBY'S PATENT " .The peep sight I have seen pulls up to spring loaded detent for 100 , 300 and 400 yards . Rifle is low 2*** series Rigby number ( on trigger guard ) and low 4*** series Mauser , no Mauser markings other than proof marks ( have not seen it out of stock ), is engraved " sighted for Rigby's high velocity 275 pointed bullet 140 grs." , rear sight standing bar ( 100) and two folding leaves ( 300 , 400 ). As best I can see it is a short ( front receiver ring 1.69 " ), intermediate action . Barrel is engraved with Sackville St. address ( probably rebarreled ) but engraving is different style to receiver ring . First post , be gentle . | |||
|
| one of us |
By all accounts this rifle appears to be as far as one can see from the pictures the same rifle as the Rigby 275. The first 1000 Rigby Rifles were built on transition action actions and the Mauser archives show that the rifles were built in full in Germany. ie complete rifles complete with all the "english fitments" So with that said it is known that some rifles did not make it to England. If they did they had to be proofed in England under British proof law. If this rifle is not British proofed it may well be a vary rare specimen. That is is if it's German proofs are intact. I have a 303 Mauser that was built for Rigby but it never went to England so it has no British proofs, It is German marked as a cal 7.7mm according to Speed there are less than 100 of these German 303's in circulation. | |||
|
| One of Us |
Thanks for the first post in 6 years, Harry! Seems like you have lots of knowledge to share. Thanks all for the responses so far and keep them coming. It is not a 7mm Rigby "magnum" and came with 7x57 ammo, so I am sure .284. All interesting stuff and I will let you know what Rigby company says. | |||
|
| One of Us |
Not trying to step on any toes here, but I know that Rigby's (Blaser, actually) have appointed a total of four Rigby agents in SA-I know three of the four really well. I would be very interested to know which of them you spoke to. Also, I haven't heard a word on any Rigby museum planned for SA. I know Marc Newton, Rigby's MD, has started a wonderful collection back in London, though. All of the Rigby's in SA, and there are a number of very fine collections, are in private hands so setting up a museum such as this will take a man on a horse! Please do keep us informed of further progess. Interesting topic. | |||
|
| One of Us |
Yes, not getting excited just yet. I have been in correspondence with Rigby in London and they will get back to me. | |||
|
| one of us |
Id be pretty excited if that nice rifle was built by R2D2 or Cosemoto, it's just damn nice and would deserve a place of honor in my gun cabinet... Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
|
One of Us |
+1  Shawn Joyce Diizche Safari Adventures P.O. Box 1445 Lincoln, CA 95648 E-mail: shawn.joyce@diizchesafariadventures.net Cell: (916) 804-3318 Shoot Straight, Live the Dream, and Keep Turning the Pages to Your Next Adventure!™ Website- www.DiizcheSafariAdventures.com Blog- http://diizchesafari.blogspot.com/ Twitter- http://twitter.com/DiizcheSafari YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/user/shawncjoyce Facebook- http://on.fb.me/gYytdn Instagram: diizchesafari_official | |||
|
| One of Us |
Karoo, I'll go out on a limb here and suggest it is possibly from a commercial shipment of identical rifles sold 'off the rack' from a South African retailer. All with sequential serial numbers. This was quite common in the first half of the 20th century and is how Harry Selbys' .416 Rigby was originally sold in Kenya. He had it rebareled and engraved by Rigby and I can find no mention of the original markings however. | |||
|
| One of Us |
 | |||
|
| One of Us |
The Rigby fellow says that there should be a serial number on the trigger guard, but I find none. Instead, all the "other" serial number matches the bolt, sight and barrel.  | |||
|
| One of Us |
 | |||
|
| Powered by Social Strata |
 | Please Wait. Your request is being processed... |
|
Visit our on-line store for AR Memorabilia